Misperception (Finnegan Brothers Book 3) (3 page)

4

On Wednesday morning I woke up extra early to make sure that I could get ready before I got Mackenzie out of bed. In so many ways I was still her mother. Even though we weren't in Florida anymore, I felt like I was still responsible for her. After I put on a pair of capris and a white button up shirt, trying to look like I had my shit together, I ran into her room and flopped down on the bed next to her. I was still flying high from my date with Micah; we had been texting ever since and made plans. “It's time to get up! We've got to go to the bridal shop to try on dresses.”

She barely stirred. “Kenz, you've got to get up. Charity’s going to freak out if we miss her ten o'clock appointment. I'll grab something out of your closet for you. You’ve got five minutes to get out of this bed and get into the shower.”

I got up off of her bed and started rooting through her closet and dresser to find something appropriate to wear to a bridal salon. Finally I settled on a mustard colored dress that covered up her boobs. My sister was built like a Barbie doll, but this wasn't really the time or place to show that off.

“Mackenzie, get up now,” I said, shaking her once more and dangling the dress in front of her.

She rubbed her eyes and looked at me for the first time. “Why are you wearing white?”

“What?”

She sat up slowly. “I said why are you wearing white? People are going to think that you're the bride. And you're not, and Charity is not going like the attention that’s going to give you.”

She had a point. “Fine, I’ll go change my top after you get in the shower. Come on! I don't want us to be late.”

She dragged her body out of the bed and made her way over to our shared bathroom. I heard the water turn on the way and I walked back to my room to pick out a different top. I settled on short-sleeved mint shirt, at least now I looked more like a bridesmaid then a bride.

As Mackenzie got dressed I asked about Mom. I still hadn’t heard the official verdict on the boyfriend situation.

“Hey, have you heard from Mom?” I inquired as she finished her makeup.

“Nah, she’s got some big fundraiser for the company. I don’t think she’ll be around much before we go home.”

“Okay.”

She popped her head out of the bathroom. “She hasn’t mentioned the boyfriend yet, promise.”

She knew me too well. “Okay, good. I hope she tells us together.”

“Yeah me too,” she agreed. “I don’t really want to tell you Mom’s dirty secrets. That would just be weird.”

Sisterly love right there.

“Yeah it would.”

We took a taxi to the shop. Charity was already at work with her Jag. After I paid the driver, we turned around to see the largest wedding shop I'd ever seen in my life. It was at least three stories high with mannequins in every window.

“Well this is going to be a blast,” Mackenzie said sarcastically.

“Hey, we've got to try here. I don't like her as much as you don't, but we’re stuck with her. And if we make this even worse, today is going to be straight up unbearable. So put a smile on that cute little face of yours and suck it up.”

Mackenzie hung her head, her shoulders slumped forward, but I could tell that she was resigned to helping me get through this day. I walked toward the shop and held the door open for her. As soon as we entered we were surrounded by attendants.

“Oh, you two must be Charity’s new stepdaughters!”

“Oh, you both are so beautiful.”

“I thought she said the older one was a little bit smaller,” one said to another.
Nice.

They were all dressed in professional black clothes and looked super put together. This place felt expensive. Right up Charity’s alley. This day was going to go exactly how I expected. Charity pushed through the attendants and gave us both huge hugs, squeezing us tightly like we belonged to her. It was uncomfortable. Mackenzie rolled her eyes at me as Charity embraced her.

“Charity, why don't we get started with the appointment? I know Mackenzie is a mess when she’s hungry, and you did promise lunch.”

She let go of my little sister and clapped her hands together, “Of course! Just wait until you see these dresses, you are just going to die.”

We walked upstairs past at least a thousand yards of tulle to see two mannequins at the end of a large room. And she was right, I was going to die.

“Neon pink?” I could hear the disgust dripping from Mackenzie's words. “You thought that having bridesmaids in neon pink was a good idea?”

I couldn't hide Mackenzie's feelings, or mine. The dresses were hideous. Not only were they neon pink but they were skintight with a gigantic bow on the back covering our asses. They looked like something a hooker would wear, not to a huge wedding. I looked at Charity as her face fell. “You don't like them?”

I sighed. “It's not that we don't like them, Charity. And honestly it doesn't matter what we like anyway, it's your wedding.”

She sat down on one of the ornate chairs right next to the mannequins and slumped over. “My sister didn't like it either. I just thought she was jealous since I'm the first one getting married in the family. But now that I see your faces I know that maybe this wasn't the right choice.” For once she was being almost human. Showing real emotion instead of her sticky sweetness that made me want to vomit half the time. I looked over and Kenz’s face showed her empathy. 

“They're not that bad, Charity. I'm just not a big fan of pink.”

I rested my hand on Charity’s shoulder. “Yeah it'll be fine, really. It's your wedding, not ours.”

An attendant shuffled behind me. “Why don't you girls try them on? They always look better on the bridesmaids than they do on the mannequins.” I turned around and nodded and she moved to take them off the mannequins. Mackenzie and I went into a dressing room to change.

I was going ask for help from one of the attendants to zip me up but then I thought better of it. “Charity, do you think you could zip up the back?”

She was sitting in the chair, but I saw her head rise a little. “If you're sure…”

“Yeah, I just can't seem to reach it.” I tried to appear nonchalant, like this was something I would ask her to do any time. I just wanted to make her feel better. But when Mackenzie and I emerged from the dressing rooms it was clear on all the attendants’ faces that neon pink didn’t do either of us any favors. One girl even had a severe look of disgust to the point where she walked away. I'm sure her boss had told her that they were still trying to make a sale. Charity chewed on her lower lip as Mackenzie and I stood side-by-side looking in the mirror.

“They're a lot pinker than I thought.”

Mackenzie added, “They’re the brightest I think I've ever seen. And they make my eyes hurt.”

Finally Charity cracked a smile while she stood behind us, “Oh my God, they're hideous. What was I thinking? Neon pink on girls of your age? Oh girls, I'm so sorry.”

Both Mackenzie and I busted out laughing. “These are really awful,” I said.

“My eyes, my eyes!” Mackenzie was grabbing onto her head like she was blinded. It threw the three of us into a fit of giggles. The attendants didn't seem to appreciate the hilarity of our situation.

Once I took a deep breath and calmed down a little I added, “Charity what are you going do? We can't wear these and the wedding is next week.”

She looked around the salon. “All right people get to work, I want black dresses, short. I still want the bow, but in the front on a sash. The money does not matter, I’ll pay for these as well.” She gestured to the two dresses still on our bodies. All six attendants that had stayed scattered. Within minutes they were back with several options that all looked classy and chic. Much more our style. I grabbed three from one attendant and Mackenzie picked out two more from the other girls. We tried on dresses for an hour, and even started our own little fashion show. Apparently Charity had made sure we would be alone for the whole morning, because no one came into the store. At one point we had even gotten scores from the attendants by holding numbers up on their fingers. And when we both walked out in a simple, strapless, short black gown with a thick sash on the waist, everyone gave us tens.

“These just look like they were made for you!” Charity beamed.

“I like this one a lot.”

“That's super high praise from Mackenzie; these are definitely the ones.”

Charity looked back at the salesgirls, “I'm going to need one more in a size ten for my sister. And make her sash a different color, maybe a cream or an ivory to match my dress.” She looked back at us, “She's the maid of honor, she has to stand out a little bit.”

Mackenzie put her hands up. “You don't need to tell me about having to stand out. I have an older sister, too.”

Charity smiled once again. And for the first time since she had split up my family, I actually kind of liked her. Maybe she wasn't going to be the step monster that I had thought she was.

We decided as a group to forgo lunch, mostly because Charity got a phone call from work and she had to go back early. Zoe also called me while I was at the bridal salon and asked me if I wanted to do lunch. Charity said that she didn't mind dropping Kenz back off at home, so after they left I walked downtown to a little pub. Zoe was already there sitting outside sipping what looked like lemonade, but knowing her I was sure it was spiked.

“What you got there?”

She cocked her head to the side, “Something absolutely delicious and perfect for a summer day. Should I order you one?”

I shook my head. “Nah, I think I'm in the mood for a Long Island iced tea instead.”

She smiled. “Feeling a little feisty are we? The dress fitting didn't go so terribly then I take it?”

I shook my head. “No, actually. Charity was almost human. I don't know what happened, but suddenly it just seems like she actually wanted to be our friend. And not a fake one either—she even changed the bridesmaids dresses to make us happy.”

Zoe looked like ghost just walked by. “No way! I thought she was going to an evil stepmother. I'm not sure I like her changing her style all of a sudden the week before the wedding. Or were you and Mackenzie just being such super bitches that she couldn’t work with you anymore?”

“Ouch! No, actually we were being super nice about the fact that she wanted to put us in neon pink dresses. But they were God awful and finally she realized that. My super chic black dress is being delivered to the house on Saturday.”

She looked impressed. “Won't you just look fabulous then? Make sure you don't look better than the bride, though.”

I laughed. “No I'm pretty sure she would punch me in the face to make sure that eye matched my dress if I looked better than her. But we’re making progress, even if it's just baby steps.”

Zoe grabbed the waitress and ordered my drink. After she walked away she got a more serious look on her face. “Lena, we need to talk about Slade.”

I was shocked; I hadn't even thought about Slade since I had talked to Blake about his troubles. I'd kind of washed my hands of the situation, but although he wasn't my problem anymore, a piece of me still wanted to know. “What about Slade?”

She set down her drink and sat up a little straighter. “Blake said that he talked to you about it, so I feel like it's okay for me to tell you. Slade is going to be away for a while. Like you probably won't see him anymore while you're here.”

Prison. He had finally done something dumb enough to go to jail for the second time in one summer. “Where is he, Zoe?”

She sighed. “He's in rehab, Lena. Apparently his drinking has been getting a lot worse and his parents found out that he hasn't paid the rent on his apartment in like three months. I guess Blake kind of ratted about that. It seemed like he was spending more time gambling and drinking than he was going to work. Turns out he lost his job six weeks ago for being drunk on the job. He's got a problem.”

I sat back in my chair. “I knew it was bad, but I didn't know was that bad.”

“Well at least now you know that all that gibberish he was talking about wasn't really about you. He's been having problems for a long time, but I don't know what set him off recently for it to become so bad.”

“Beats me. I didn't even know about Megan dying, or how important she was to him. And I mean, I guess these things can get progressively worse.” Honestly, I didn’t know any alcoholics, so I had no idea what it was like to have that disease.

A girl behind us turned around and tapped my shoulder. She was blonde with stunning blue eyes and the perfect dazzling smile. I thought I recognized her from somewhere, but I couldn't place her. “I'm really sorry to interrupt, but were you just talking about Slade Finnegan?”

Zoe's eyes got wide; clearly she didn't know that the girl behind me knew our friend. I knew that we couldn't deny it, though. I mean, how many Slades were there? “Yeah, we were. Why?”

“I used to work with Slade. Things got weird at work when he lost a really big client for our accounting firm. He screwed up in a Monday morning meeting one time and the boss really chewed him out. That's when I noticed he started going happy hour a little bit earlier than the rest of us. Our job is really stressful, you know? I think was just too much for him. Glad to hear he’s getting help. I'm Harli, by the way.” She turned around and extended a hand to me. As I shook it I realized I where I knew her from.